Trovion, a company now located in Campbell, Calif., has developed, manufactured and marketed electrolytic ion exchange devices for analytical scale water purification. The Trovion CIRA products are designed to integrate into analytical instrumentation with the product water flow rate being compatible with instrumentation.
In the Trovion electrolytic ion exchange devices, the product water, or analytical stream, never passes through the electrode chambers. As a result, the product water or sample stream is not contaminated with electrolysis by-products such as oxygen, hydrogen, ozone and hydrogen peroxide. Since ozone and hydrogen peroxide can damage ion exchange materials, minimizing contact of critical ion exchange components with these oxidizers is advantageous.
In US Patent Application US20060231404, an electrolytic suppressor and eluent purifier is disclosed in which the electrode chambers are isolated from the analytical or waste stream (resulting from the feed). For the suppression of hydrochloric acid, no damage to the ion exchange materials was observed since chloride is not received into the anode compartment, but instead is received into a non-electrolytic central mixed bed waste chamber.
In US Patent Application US20060186046, an ion chromatography system using catalytic gas elimination combined with eluent recycle is described. In this system, electrolytic suppressors are used and the recycled eluent is recovered in the electrode chambers. Since the electrode chambers produce hydrogen and oxygen, catalytic elimination of the hydrogen and oxygen gases is used. The catalytic recombination of oxygen and hydrogen to water eliminates problems associated with dissolved gases in the eluent stream and aids in reducing electrolytic by products such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide.